Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jessica Madison. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jessica, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How do you feel about asking friends and family to support your business? What’s appropriate, what’s not? Where do you draw the line?

I have had a hard time asking friends and family to support my business, which I’m really working on. It’s hard to get rid of the feeling of imposter syndrome, but I have to remember that I love and see value in what I create, so why wouldn’t they?

Not only do my friends support me as customers, but they also show up for me during the less fun times like market set ups. I’m learning to be better about asking for help and leaning on them because it’s what I’d want to do for them!

I think I have to draw the line with myself when it comes to giving away my work for to friends and instead offering a discount. On the flip side I also draw the line at my friends giving me large amounts of their time for free. Their time is valuable too and if I need help in the form of support staff then I can hire them at a discount.

I feel lucky for such a strong support system, but I do think striking balance with friendship and business can be difficult.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I started creating clay jewlery during the pandemic and learned from watching and reading tutorials online. It quickly became a passion and now I make clay earrings, hair clips and bracelets for local markets and 5 stores around the greater Austin area.

What I think sets me apart from others is that each piece is handmade and while my styles vary, most are created to resemble various stone jewlery. The clay is light weight, so my customers can wear classic looking pieces comfortable.

I am most proud of the fact I have been able to grow so much over the last yeah, both in my skill and my business overall with the support of locally owned business that prioritize uplifting small makers. I am also proud that with the profits of art that I make myself, I am able to help support my mom, who gave so much to me growing up and now suffers from Alzheimers.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

My market is still local, and I think what helped me build my reputation is having a consistent and high quality product. I started doing local markets before expanding to selling in stores, and I still love the feeling to meeting a repeat customer or seeing someone wear my earrings around the CIty.
Having a reputation of someone who provides a quality product has allowed me entrance into more established stores and local markets and I love that new clients often find me by word of mouth

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

I use Etsy currently, but am looking to moving back to an ecommerce site with Shopify.

When I was getting started initially I used Shopify and I loved the site, but didn’t have the time or resources to appropriatly market it to drive traffic, so I ended up moving back to Etsy where I was able to get some organic traffic. Now that I have more of a following and have invested in resources like HubSpot, which integrates with shopify, I plan to move back.

This will allow me to capture customer information via forms if they want information on new items, items back in stock, sales, etc, and manage my customer base and sales in one platform.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.etsy.com/shop/AsaAndRae
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/asa_rae_